SUING MICHAEL ISIKOFF

...He has immersed himself in Whitewater, taken Paula Jones’s claims seriously, and listened to Linda Tripp talk about an intern named Monica...

...But the president and his men would no doubt enjoy seeing him knocked off his game...

...Bob Woodward, who once hired Isikoff, says that the Newsweek reporter does “superb” work, in accordance with “the strictest standards...

...He is eager to point out that Ken Starr has toiled for the other side, presenting the independent counsel with “a raving conflict of interest...

...Her lawyers insist that she is a relatively apolitical person, a Republican if anything, who cast votes for Ronald Reagan and George Bush...

...On June 11, Julie Hiatt Steele filed suit against him in federal district court—alleging that the reporter betrayed her, defamed her, and ruined her life...

...Coale was evidently referring to Isikoff ’s two-week suspension from the Washington Post in 1994 for insubordination, following a stormy confrontation with his editors over their spiking of his work on Paula Jones...

...Willey, too, is expected to appear as a witness in the case—and the blood between her and her onetime friend remains bad...

...On the day she filed her lawsuit, Steele testified before Kenneth Starr’s grand jury...

...She also took the occasion to read a statement to the press—the opening shot in a public-relations offensive...

...Steele uttered this last part apparently to quiet speculation about her motives...

...Isikoff may be able to slough off this lawsuit against him, pursuing his quarry as usual...

...She has lost her job...

...Luque (pronounced “Lukey”) is a fixture in the capital’s legal establishment...

...Clinton, I want to apologize to the president and his family...

...It will not be, he vows, a matter of “he said, she said...

...The “Nixonites,” Woodward notes, “tried to make the reporters, rather than themselves, the issue—as had administrations before them—and obviously the same sort of thing is going on now with Mike...

...How did that happen...

...While Luque is handling the grand-jury matter, John Coale has charge of the lawsuit...

...In 1997, Coale had his biggest strike ever, leading the trial lawyers in their $368 billion suit against the tobacco companies...

...He was the first American lawyer to arrive at Bhopal, India, after the Union Carbide accident...

...Legally, Coale intends to rely on a 1991 Supreme Court case, Cohen v. Cowles Media, which holds that the First Amendment does not protect a journalist from burning a source—that is, breaking a “contract” with someone to whom he has pledged anonymity...

...She has lost her earning potential...

...Coale further charges that Isikoff slandered Steele by telling a television audience that she had attempted to peddle her story to a tabloid (though Coale concedes that Steele sold a photo of Willey with Clinton to the National Enquirer...

...Coale even dangles the possibility that Steele, ? la Tripp, has a tape or two up her sleeve...

...Michael Madigan is one who is not quite willing to believe it...

...Is she a Democratic lawyer...

...Her clients have included the spy Jonathan Pollard and the employees of Dan Rostenkowski, the Chicago Democrat recently released from jail...

...Coale alleged that the man had done a shoddy job on nine custommade shirts and that the ungainly fit had subjected him to “public humiliation,” “severe emotional distress,” and “embarrassment”— much the language that appears in Steele’s complaint...

...Ann McDaniel, the magazine’s Washington bureau chief, says that Steele has lodged “a ridiculous complaint” and that “we have the utmost confidence” in Isikoff, who “knows the difference between off the record and on the record...

...Steele maintains that she and Isikoff agreed that their conversations would be off the record...

...He says that he will demonstrate that Isikoff unlawfully deceived his client...

...That will come out in our lawsuit...

...Isikoff will almost certainly find himself distracted as he fends off a legal attack—which will presumably be fine with the White House...

...So she has socked him—and Newsweek—with a lawsuit charging nine counts of (among other offenses) breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and fraud...

...One of those lawyers, John Coale—who is among the bar’s most colorful figures—says that Steele filed her suit for a simple reason: “Her life has not been very nice” since Isikoff printed her name almost a year ago...

...Later, he represented Lisa Marie Presley in her divorce from Michael Jackson...

...Steele and her lawyers deny that they are part of a Democratic cabal, but skeptics—many of whom are in the Washington press corps—smell a rat...

...Asked to explain Steele’s choice, Luque notes that “Julie is a fan of Mr...

...She then addressed herself to the president: “Although I did not vote for Mr...

...Speaking of notorious, Steele’s lawyers are worth a look...

...Or anything else on this matter...

...Coale himself has admitted to being “an ambulance chaser,” a “bad boy,” a “known sleazebag...

...Coale later asserted that his “counterclaim” had been an elaborate ruse...

...Simpson trial...

...That would be Greta van Susteren, the CNN legal analyst who rose to fame during the O.J...

...At first, Steele supported her friend’s story, telling Isikoff that Willey had come to her in distress only hours after the alleged incident occurred...

...He had troubles with the Washington Post over this very issue...

...Her husband is known as the “Master of Disaster,” an attorney quick to the scene of a catastrophe...

...Coale is also willing to comment on certain small-fry claims: When President Clinton twisted his ankle at the golfer Greg Norman’s estate, Coale suggested that the injury was “worth $850,000 minimum—add another $200,000 if the county it happened in went Democrat...

...Willey has described her former friend, Steele, as a “pawn,” deployed by the Clintonites “to discredit me...

...Luque, too, is hesitant to discuss the circumstances of her engagement, but she does say that “my representation of Julie has nothing to do with the White House or the president’s other counsel or anything else concerning politics...

...He further boasts that he will prove that the alleged incident involving Clinton and Kathleen Willey never took place: “We’re going to show that it did not happen...

...Lately, Luque has represented the Clinton-Gore campaign in the fund-raising investigation, as well as Asiagate defendants Melinda Yee and Maria Hsia (who, Luque cautioned the press, should not be viewed as “a sort of Mata Hari” of Al Gore’s Buddhist temple...

...In 1987, the Washington Post’s Style section asked, “Is John Coale really the sleaziest lawyer in America...

...Fred Thompson’s special committee, Madigan says that Luque “is an outstanding lawyer—so I’m surprised to see her in such an obviously b.s...

...Similarly, he was present in San Juan following the horrible hotel fire of 1986...

...And while Steele’s lawyers declare their independence from the Clinton operation, they are hardly political innocents...

...Her first was John West, from Richmond, Va., where Steele was living at the time of her encounters with Isikoff...

...She has lost her standing in the community...

...I really am not a political animal—though I know no one will believe that...

...I deeply regret that my mistakes were used to cause them harm, and I assure you—these are my words—I have not been asked to say this...

...Later, though, Steele changed her tune, explaining to Isikoff that Willey, out of desperation and connivance, had asked her to lie...

...case...

...Coale says that he investigated Steele’s contentions for two months before agreeing to take her case...

...Newsweek states emphatically that Isikoff has done nothing wrong...

...Steele v. Isikoff may well provide a measure of excitement...

...Luque protests, “I do not choose clients by looking at their voter-registration cards, and the notion that I would be carrying anyone’s water is insulting...

...Does Steele’s name ring a bell...

...Just last month, Coale and his wife were guests at a White House state dinner...

...Luque, for her part, states flatly that she has had no contact with the White House or its allies about either Steele’s grand-jury testimony or the suit against Isikoff...

...She is an ex-confidante of Kathleen Willey, the woman who claims that the president accosted her in a room off the Oval Office...

...West declines to say how he came to be hired by Steele and why he ceased to represent her...

...She soon switched, however, to a Washington superlawyer, Nancy Luque...

...Now, Isikoff is himself a target of controversy...

...They suspect that Steele is being used to harass and silence a journalist who vexes the president...

...Apparently, he had filed a counterclaim against an Indian tailor who helped him line up Union Carbide clients and then demanded fees...

...Finally—to burnish the lore—Coale received the American Lawyer’s Most Frivolous Suit Award for 1986...

...She further insists that Isikoff ’s violation of this alleged agreement has cost her money, honor, and peace of mind...

...She has, in short, been made “notorious...

...Coale, like Nancy Luque, states that he has never discussed Julie Steele with anyone at the White House or with any Clinton associates...

...But Bruce Sanford, a prominent Washington media attorney, calls Cohen an “idiosyncratic case,” whose “facts are somewhat aberrational...

...Coale told CNN’s Larry King that Isikoff is “a guy, I think, who had it in for the president...

...The various Clinton “-gates” may lack a Woodward and Bernstein, but Mike Isikoff comes close...

...Still, no reporter likes to be sued...

...The former majority counsel to Sen...

...While Cohen may have “legal relevance” to the Steele-Isikoff fight, says Sanford, it has little “factual relevance,” as “the difference between the two cases is enormous...

...Coale’s wife...

...He is straight out of the president’s nightmares...

...Over a year ago,” she said, “I made two mistakes: I did a favor for a person I thought was my friend, and I trusted a reporter...

...Jay Nordlinger is associate editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...

...Shortly after that episode, Isikoff moved to Newsweek (also owned by the Washington Post Company...

...Luque, a criminal lawyer, drew up a list of plaintiff ’s attorneys, from which her client selected Coale...